Hard fiber carding machine



March 8, 1949.

NOW BY CHANGE OF NAME B. G. H. VAN-DERJAGT HARD FIBER GARDING MACHINE Filed April 12, 1945 B. G. H. VAN DER JAGT 2,464,009

5 Sheets-Sheet l UP 5TR\KE.R

CARD CYLINDER DOWN STRIKER' CARD CYLINDER 7Q INVE NTOR ammo cvsuems HEIIOIIKUS vnl new. .0 Now av CHANGE OF NAME o: BAzzun evssun'us HENRY vnmmm O WORKER }/%ESTRIPPER Bu W I I40. 0...\

ATTORNEY March 8, 1949. B. G. H. VAN DER JAGT ,4

NOW BY CHANGE OF NAME B. G. H. VANDERJAGT HARD FIBER CARDING MACHI NE Filed April 12, 1945 BAREND GYSBERTUS HENDRWUS VAN DER JAGT Now .cumea OF NAME BARE GYSBERTus emu VANDEEJAGT INVENTOR 4 ATTORNEY 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I March 8, 1949. B. G. H. VAN DER JAGT 2,464,009

NOW BY CHANGE OF NAME B. G. H. VANDERJAGT HARD FIBER CARDING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed April 12, 1945 Patented Mar. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARD FIBER CARDING MACHINE Barend Gysbertus Hendrikus van der J agt, Mayaguez, P. R., now by change of name Barend Gysbertus Henry Vanderjagt Application April 12, 1945, Serial No. 587,962

3 Claims. 1

My invention relates to an improvement in carding machines for so-called hard fibers, such as jute, coconut fibres, sisal, and palmetto root fibers, and more particularly to novel means for reducing the loss of fibers in the operation of such carding machines.

In hard fiber carding machines, it has, heretofore, been the custom to enclose the lower part of the carding cylinder and such stripper and worker rollers as may be arranged at the periphery of the lower half of the carding cylinder with a substantially solid sheet metal or wood casing extending substantially along the contours of the lower half of the carding mechanism for the purpose of preventing the fibers carried around by the carding pins from being thrown out and becoming lost. In order to reduce the friction of the fibers against this casing and to permit the escape of dust and of very short fibers, the casing was provided with two to three transverse openings and rollers were provided in these openings with their peripheries spaced a short distance from the edges of the openings so that 4 to 6 narrow transverse slots of about width were formed in the casing. In spite of the small number and narrow width of these slots, it was found that not only the dust and the useless very short fibers were discharged through the slots, but also a considerable proportion of serviceable longer fibers. In some cases the loss of valuable fibers ran as high as 15%.

It is the principal object of the present invention to reduce this loss and to provide means whereby almost none of the valuable fibers are thrown out during their travel along the lower peripheries of the carding elements.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby during the travel of the fibers along the lower part of the periphery of the carding elements, at the election of the operator, either dust alone or dust and short fibers up to a certain length are discharged.

I have discovered that the high percentage of loss of serviceable fibers in the conventional hard fiber carding machines is not due to the fact that the dust escape slots are too wide or too numerous, but this loss is caused by the high velocity of the air currents passing through the slots. The main carding cylinder has a diameter of between about 4 and 5 feet and revolves at 200 or more revolutions per minute. This cylinder acts as a powerful fan which draws air into and compresses it in the casing. Due to the small numher and the narrow width of the escape slots, the compressed air passes the slots in the form of air currents of high velocity, and these high velocity air currents entrain even comparatively long fibers and guide them outwardly through the escape slots.

I have found that such high velocity air currents and the ensuing high loss of valuable fibers can be almost completely avoided if the lower part of the carding elements is enclosed not with a solid casing having only a few, narrow slots, but with a screen provided with a great number of comparatively narrow uniformly spaced slots parallel to the axis of the carding cylinder, the total area of said slots being sufficient to prevent the air currents produced by the rapidly rotating cylinder from reaching at any of the slots a velocity whereby serviceable fibers are blown out through the slots.

The width of the slots may vary between about and about 1" depending upon whether it is desired to discharge only the dust or also the short fibers up to a certain length.

The width of the solid screen portions between the slots may be, for instance, about The numberof slots per unit of peripheral length of the screen may vary in rather wide limits depending upon the width of the slots and of the solid intermediate portions, but I have found that best results are obtained with from about 8 to about 20 slots per foot of peripheral length of the screen.

Although in my arrangement, the number of escape slot-s is between 10 and 20 times that of the escape slots in the previously known constructions and the total escape area from about 8 to 30 times greater than in conventional hard fiber carding machines, the improved distribution of the air flow and the small velocity of the air currents passing the individual slots leads to an almost miraculous reduction in the loss of valuable fibers. In hard fiber carding machines provided with my screen, the loss of valuable flbers has been found to be of the order of 1% or less.

Although no rollers are provided in my screen, it was found that, due to the more uniform distribution of the air currents, excessive accumulations of fibers and undesirable frictional stresses on the screen are fully avoided.

I have also found that by varying the distance between my screen and the tips of the carding pins between about and I can change from an operation of the machine in which only dust is discarded through the slots progressively to operations in which short fibers up to a desired length are thrown out with the dust,

Several embodiments of my invention are set forth in detail in the following description and illustratively exemplified in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic sectional side view of an up striker carding machine provided with a screen according to my invention, the carding pins and screen elements being shown on a disproportionately larger scale for the sake of clarity.

Fig. 2 is a sectional side view on a larger scale of a part of the machine illustrated in Fig. 1, showing a fragment of the carding cylinder and of the screen with the carding pins and screen elements in their proper proportions.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic sectional view similar to that of Fig. 1 of a down striker carding machine.

Figs. 4 to 6 illustrate diagrammatically an up striker carding machine with a screen composed of adjustable arcuate sections, the feed roller stripper, worker and doffer rollers being omitted from these figures for the sake of simplicity and the carding pin and screen elements being shown on a disproportionately larger scale. Specifically Fig. 4 is an end view of the machine, and

Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional views taken on lines V-V and VIVI, respectively.

Referring now to the drawings, and first to Figs. 1 and 2, ll denotes the main carding cylinder of an up striker carding machine for hard fibers. I2 is a feeder roller, l3 and M are workers and strippers, two pairs of which are shown in Fig. 1. I5 is a doffer roller which removes the carded fibers from the main carding cylinder at the delivery side. Each of the various carding elements, such as the main carding cylinder, the feeder, the strippers and workers and the dofier, carries on its periphery outwardly projecting carding pins. In the embodiment according to Fig. 2, these pins project a distance of about 1%?" and are uniformly spaced about /2, as usual in carding machines for hard fibers. The main carding cylinder has a diameter of about 4 feet and a transverse width of about 6 feet and its lower part is enclosed by a screen I! which extends downwardly from a horizontal plane disposed a short distance below th cylinder axis along the periphery of the carding cylinder at a small distance, shown in Fig. 2 to be about A,", from the tips of the carding pins I6. The screen I! consists of a number of uniformly spaced round iron bars I8 extending parallel to the axis of the carding cylinder. As shown in Fig. 2, the bars [8 have a diameter of /2" and are arranged with their centers about apart so as to define between them elongated slots IQ of fs" width running parallel to the cylinder axis. In this case about 100 bars may be placed underneath the carding cylinder H, forming 99 slots it a t al pen area of 99 x '72 x %=1335 sq. inches, whereas the total escape area in the usual card casing is between 4 x '72 X /2=144 and 6 x '72 x /2=l80 sq. inches.

The arrangement shown in Fig. 3 is substantially similar to that illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 with the exception that in the down striker carding machine according to Fig. 3, a stripper I30; and a worker I la are disposed below the main carding cylinder ll, instead of above said cylinder, and the positions of the feeder roller I2 and of the doifer l5 are reversed. The screen Ila includes an epicyclic portion llb which encloses the stripper I3a and the worker Ma.

The adjustable screen 20 shown in Figs. 4 to 6 comprises two lateral arcuate fiat iron holders 2| each consisting of three arcuate sections 2Ia, Zlb and 210. The holders 2| are provided with holes in which the ends of the bars l8 are mounted. Each arcuate section has radially projecting therefrom three lugs 22, the lugs of each section being provided with elongated slots 23 parallel to the radius of the cylinder H which passes through the center of the section. Threaded bolts are mounted in and project at right angles from the side plates 24 of the machine frame through the elongated slots 23, and wing nuts 25 on said bolts permit of clamping the holder section Zia, 2!?) and Zlc in position.

Two intermediate arcuate holders 26, each comprising three arcuate sections 26a, 26b and 260, substantially similar to the sections 2| a, 2lb and 2 la and provided with holes traversed by the bars 18, are disposed between the lateral holders 2|. An I beam 21, which forms part of the machine frame, is disposed below th carding cylinder ll parallel to the cylinder axis. At the location of each intermediate holder 26, a fiat iron bar 28 provided with longitudinal slots 29 is placed on edge on the beam 21 and secured to the latter, e. g. by welding, in a position with its major axis running at right angles to that of the beam. Two uprights 3B are mounted near the opposite ends of each bar 2-8, by means of threaded bolts 31 extending through the horizontal slots 29 and through vertical slots 32 in the lower ends of the uprights 30 and of wing nuts 33 on the bolts 3!. Integral with the upper end of each upright 30 is an arcuate yoke portion 34. The adjacent ends of associated yoke portions 34 fit slidably into recesses in the opposite ends of the associated central holder section 261), while the outer end of each yoke portion 34 engages a recess in one of the outer holder sections 26a or 260 and serves as support for said section.

In order to increase the distance between the screen 20 and the tips of the carding pins [6, the wing nuts 33 are loosened and the uprights 30 are shifted downwardly relative to the bolts 3| and outwardly with the bolts 3! until'their yoke portions 34 have assumed the desired positions, away from the holders 26 which are retained in their original positions by the bars [8 and holders 2|. Then, the nuts 33 are tightened again, and, after the wing nuts 25 have been loosened, the holder sections 2la, 2| b and 2lc are shifted downwardly and outwardly, each along the radius of the card cylinder ll passing through its center, until the holder sections 26a, 26b and 260, which follow the movement of the section 2la, 21b and 210 are seated again on the yoke portions 34. Fi-- nally, the nuts 25 are tightened again. If the distance between the screen 20 and the tips of the carding pins I6 is to be reduced, the adjustment is effected in reverse order.

I claim:

1. In an up striker carding machine for hard fibers, the combination with a machine frame and a main carding cylinder of between 4 and 5 feet diameter rotatably supported in said frame and carrying on its periphery outwardly projecting carding pins uniformly spaced a distance of about A of a screen enclosing the lower part of said carding cylinder downwardly from a horizontal plane disposed a short distance below the cylinder axis, said screen comprising a plurality of transversely spaced curved holders extending along the periphery of said lower part of said carding cylinder, each of said holders including three arcuate sections, a plurality of transverse bars supported by said holders in substantially parallel relationship to the cylinder axis and uniformly spaced to define between them a substantial number of evenly distributed comparatively narrow slots with a total open area sufficient to prevent the air currents produced by the rapidly rotating carding cylinder from reaching at any of said slots a velocity whereby serviceable fibers are blown out through said slots, and means supporting each said arcuate section for adjustment along a radius of said carding cylinder passing approximately through the center of said section to permit of varying the distance of said screen from the tips of said carding pins.

2. A combination, as claimed in claim 1, in which said supporting means for the arcuate sections of at least one of said holders includes radially projecting lugs on each section of said holder, the lugs on each section being provided with elongated slots parallel to the radius of said drawing cylinder passing through the center of the section and bolts projecting from the machine frame parallel to the cylinder axis through said slots.

3. A combination, as claimed in claim 1, in which said supporting means for the arcuate sections of at least one of said holders includes two uprights disposed in spaced relationship in a common plane at right angles to the axis of the carding cylinder, said uprights being horizontally and vertically adjustable in said plane, and an arcuate yoke at the top of each upright to support one outer arcuate section and one end of the inner arcuate section of said holder.

BAREND GYSBERTUS HENDRIKUS VAN DER JAGT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 31,425 Davis Feb. 12, 1861 33,744 Kinball Nov. 19, 1861 39,381 Davis Aug. 4, 1863 233,221 English Oct. 12, 1880 656,871 White Aug. 28, 1900 2,369,893 Gwaltney Feb. 20, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 1,556 Great Britain 1361 1,965 Great Britain 1859 2,336 Great Britain 1862 

